Kirk Evans, President, Texas & U.S. Law Shield:
“Run, Hide, Fight.” Those three words should immediately enter your brain when you hear shooting in a public place. Here with more information on what it means to run, is Trent Lozano.
Trent Lozano, law enforcement veteran:
So, the first thing that you can do, is evacuate. Run. Running is the first preferred method of dealing with it because let’s be honest, if we’re going to limit the number of casualties, we have to limit the number of targets in the target area. Does that make sense? So, we’ve got to try to evacuate ourselves and as many people as we possibly can out of the danger zone.
Now, from a realistic standpoint, what that looks like will vary because it depends on where your environment is that it happened. Keep in mind, if you’re in a place like a shopping mall or an open field, baseball games, football games, things like that, you’re talking it may be several blocks that you have to run.
The safe place or the designated place — first of all, you’re not going to know if it’s a safe place until you get there, right? Err on the side of being tired. Run more. If you’re not sure, keep going.
Now, one of the things you have to remember, though, is this: There’s going to be a ton of people there. Very rarely do you hear of an active shooter event that occurs where only four or five people are. An active shooter generally almost always goes for what? Highest numbers, right? Want the highest body count. So, there’s going to be a lot of people around. It’s going to be chaos. What you want to do is get as many people out as you can.
Now, you may have to be running past people who are already injured. And I know in a group like [Law Shield members], this is going to seem counterintuitive because of the nature of the type of people we are. But if we’re going to remove the most number of targets from the target area, we cannot take the time to stop and help those people that are wounded right now. If we’re looking at just numbers, is it better to have one out of two get out or two both injured and shot?
And, again, I know it sounds counterintuitive to us. But the recommendation if someone is injured, don’t try to render medical aid at that time. Do it once you’re in a safe environment.
Another thing is people respond differently to lethal force encounters. They respond differently to threats. Some people just bow up and want to fight. They don’t even know what’s going on. They’re like, oooohhh. Some people take off running. They have no idea what’s going on. They just run. But if you don’t have a plan of where to run, which is that why knowing where those exits are, you will end up creating your own exit. You’re going to end up running into a wall if you don’t have a direction that you need to go.
But there’s also another group. Some people freeze. Those are the tough ones to deal with because you want so bad to get them with you. Grab as many people as you can, take them with you. But if someone will not come with you, don’t wait for them. Try to get as many out as you can. Once you have made it to a safe place, try to keep anyone else from going in.
Kirk Evans, president of Texas and U.S. Law Shield:
From Columbine to Sandy Hook, from Virginia Tech to the Navy Shipyards, and from Orlando to San Bernardino, the phrase ‘Active Shooter’ has become all too common. On behalf of Texas and U.S. Law Shield, I hope that we have provided you some insight that can help you through one of these tragic situations. For more information on our Active Shooter series or how to join the more than 200,000 law-abiding gunowners we protect, visit TexasLawShield.com or USLawShield.com. Thank you.
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